“I guess,” the doctor said, “that after we get this girl to bed you owe me some money.”
“I guess that I do,” Longarm said, “and I’m more than happy to pay your fee.”
Thaddeus Blake smiled and wiped his hands on a blanket. “I will stay with her for a short while,” he announced. “But I’ll need some more … medicine.”
“And you shall have it,” Longarm promised as he lifted the unconscious Megan up again and carried her back toward the stairs.
Chapter 12
“All right, goddammit!” Longarm swore as he barged into Marshal Kane’s office and caught the two lawmen off guard with their feet up on their desks. “Who tried to kill me and shot Miss Riley instead!”
Kane’s jaw dropped, and then the heels of his boots hit the floor as he bounced up to his feet. “Did someone shoot Miss Riley?”
“That’s right.” Longarm whirled to face Deputy Hec Ward. “You warned me to get out of town. Maybe you didn’t want to take a chance I’d call your play.”
Ward jumped to his feet, eyes blazing. “I don’t ambush women! I don’t have to ambush anyone, damn you!”
The outraged Hec Ward stabbed for his gun, but Longarm had anticipated the move and the butt of his Colt was already planted solidly in his fist. Longarm’s Colt was a blur as its muzzle locked on the one-armed deputy’s chest.
Ward froze, eyes bugging. For a moment, no one in the office moved, and then Longarm said, “I don’t like you, Deputy Ward, but I’m not convinced that you’re a backshooter.”
Longarm’s eyes snapped over to Marshal Kane, who had not moved a muscle. “Why don’t you and your trigger-happy deputy both raise your hands over your heads,” Longarm growled.
“Why should we?” Kane demanded.
“Because,” Longarm said, “I’m placing you both under arrest until I get to the bottom of things around here and restore some order.”
Kane’s face mottled with rage. “You’re putting me under arrest!”
“That’s right. As a federal officer-“
“As a federal officer, you have no authority in my town!” the lawman shouted.
“And as someone who admits he has been fired by the Bodie town council, you have even less authority here than I do,” Longarm said, gun slowly shifting from one to the other. “Now, I don’t know what is going to happen next, Marshal Kane. It’s entirely up to you. But I’m telling you to get your hands in the air and turn around slowly.”
“I’ll kill you for this,” Kane vowed between clenched teeth. “You’ve no right to arrest us!”
“I’ll worry about that later,” Longarm said. “Now turn around, put your hands over your heads, and if you reach for your guns or a hideout, I’ll not hesitate to split your skulls wide open with the barrel of my gun.”
“You sonofabitch!” Ward screamed as he turned around and obeyed the order.
Longarm had a few tense moments as he searched and then disarmed the dangerous pair.
“All right,” he said, “it’s time to get a dose of your own medicine.”
“You’re making a hell of a bad mistake,” Kane said.
“A fatal mistake.”
“This may come as a shock to you, Ivan,” Longarm said as he herded them both into the jail cell and locked the door, “but people have told me that before.”
“This time it’ll happen,” Kane said, turning around and studying him. “I liked you, Marshal Long. I thought you had some common sense.”
“Meaning?”
“Meaning that someone else was trying to kill you. It wasn’t us. And that being the case, you haven’t got a clue as to who is trying to put a hole in your hide.”
“At least I know who won’t be,” Longarm said, looking right at Hec Ward.
“There’s something else you should know,” Kane said. “When word gets out that we are disarmed and in this cell, we’re both dead men. They’ll shoot us in here like we were fish in a barrel.”
“They might try,” Longarm said, “but I’ll be close.”
“What about Miss Riley?”
“What about her?”
“You going to be close to her as well,” Kane asked, “just in case it wasn’t an accident that she got ambushed?”
Longarm frowned. “Why would anyone deliberately try to kill Megan?”
Kane shrugged. He seemed surprisingly calm, given the circumstances. “I don’t know,” he finally admitted. “But her father is a well-known lawman. A lot of people in this part of the country hate his guts and would like to do anything they could to bring him pain. Even shooting his daughter.”
“If they wanted to do that, they could have done it far easier in Reno,” Longarm countered. “That doesn’t make any sense at all to me.”
